Drugs
Steve-in-NY, I'm very sympathetic to you. I’ve had a computer problem too and unfortunately have lost some work. I was able to salvage most of the drugs one so I’ll post that now, but I might not have much else for a while.
In terms of format for this one, I’ve done footnotes for this one with superscript call numbers (suddenly realizing that RPF lets me do that) and then a list of “sources” at the bottom. Hopefully Steve-in-NY can just lift this and use it for now without extra coding.
MYTH: Ron Paul wants to legalize drugs and let kids get drugs
FACT: Ron Paul says the states should be able to regulate drugs like alcohol
• He says the Constitution doesn’t authorize the federal government to regulate drugs
• He says the federal government’s takeover of drug regulation has failed
• He says switching to state-level regulation wouldn’t make it easier for kids to get drugs, and would allow states (if they chose) to treat drug use as a medical rather than a criminal problem
RON PAUL SAYS: “[T]he constitutional solution would get the federal government out of the picture and leave the issue to the states.”
- The Revolution: A Manifesto, page 131
DETAILS:
Constitution doesn’t authorize the federal government to regulate drugs: Ron Paul points out that when prohibition of alcohol was proposed, awareness of the Constitution’s requirements prompted the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in order to authorize the federal government to prohibit alcohol.[SUP]1[/SUP] Unfortunately, he says, that understanding has been lost and the federal government now prohibits drugs without any authorization to do so.[SUP]2[/SUP]
Federal takeover has failed: Ron Paul says that in addition the being unconstitutional, the drug war has failed: “our government has been unable to keep drugs even out of prisons, which are surrounded by armed guards.”[SUP]3[/SUP] He says “the cost to pursue the drug war in the past forty years runs into hundreds of billions of dollars. The social cost, including the loss of civil liberties, is incalculable.”[SUP]4[/SUP] He says federal drug laws “have done nothing to decrease drug usage while contributing significantly to street crime.”[SUP]5[/SUP] And he says “the federal war on drugs has wrought disproportionate harm to minority communities.”[SUP]6[/SUP]
Switch to States: Dr. Paul points out that even high school students can “easily acquire drugs” under today’s federal regulations.[SUP]7[/SUP] For this reason, switching to state regulation would not make it any easier for kids to get drugs: as Dr. Paul explains, even if the states chose to make some drugs legal under some circumstances, “a law-abiding [drug] dispensary is likely to check ID’s and refuse sale to minors, as bars and ABC stores tend to do very diligently.”[SUP]8[/SUP] Returning to state-level regulation also would let states choose to do as Dr. Paul suggests: treat drug addiction as a medical problem and let patients use medical marijuana, without federal government interference.[SUP]9[/SUP] As a first step in this direction, Dr. Paul has introduced a bill to remove marijuana from the list of federally controlled substances, which “would allow states to ‘legalize, regulate, tax and control marijuana without federal interference.’”[SUP]10[/SUP]
LEARN MORE
Watch:
Ron Paul discussing drug regulation at the South Carolina Republican debate (May 5, 2011):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws7Zp41fByE
Read:
Doug Wead explaining Ron Paul’s drugs policy:
http://www.newsmax.com/DougWead/legalize-drugs-ron-paul/2011/07/29/id/405266
“Reps. Ron Paul, Barney Frank team up to legalize marijuana,” June 23, 2011 (re bill to let states regulate marijuana):
http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/201...y-frank-introduce-bill-to-legalize-marijuana/
Sources:
[1] Ron Paul,
Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues that Affect Our Freedom, page 226.
[2]
Liberty Defined, page 226.
[3] Ron Paul,
The Revolution, page 131.
[4]
Liberty Defined, page 228.
[5]
Liberty Defined, page 229.
[6]
The Revolution, page 65.
[7]
The Revolution, page 131.
[8] Ron Paul, "End the War on Drugs," Mar. 29, 2009, link at:
http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1671&Itemid=69
[9]
The Revolution, page 130-32.
[10]
USA Today, June 23, 2011, link at:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/06/ron-paul-barney-frank-marijuana-/1
haha -- I hope. For coding purposes, as Paul Fan stated, do we need special tags to get the superscripts to work? Or can they just be pasted onto the website? If so, what sort of tag? Would you like me to do that?
